Owen gave his England team-mates Defoe and Peter Crouch a lesson in finishing at Fratton Park, taking his 52nd-minute goal clinically before Obafemi Martins and Danny Guthrie wrapped up the rout late on.

In contrast, Defoe missed a host of chances and grew increasingly frustrated as he was well shackled by the impressive Sebastien Bassong.

Adams backed his own misfiring striker however, saying it was just not Pompey's day.

"Michael has done that all his career," he said.

"You switch off for two minutes and he can punish you. But I've got one of those as well. And I wouldn't swap Jermain for Michael.

"The first goal was very important today. I didn't think it was our day. We made mistakes and gave them the goals and you don't win games if you make mistakes.

"The result was very disappointing. It was a very bitty game.

"But credit to them as well. They have come to do a job and they have done it very well. They were difficult to break down even though we had our chances."

Glen Johnson was one of several absentees for Pompey, but Adams refused to blame injuries for the defeat.

"I still had a good enough team to have done a job today but we turned the ball over in vital areas," Adams added.

"I trust in my players. I've got a good squad, although it's a little bit thin on the ground and I would love to add to it to create competition for places.

"We missed Glen today. He's influential for us and is having a great season.

"Maybe I would have liked to have had a winger today as well but John Utaka is injured and Glen Little went down with the 'flu last night."

Newcastle boss Joe Kinnear was typically belligerent after his side's first away win of the campaign, claiming it was the perfect riposte to the criticism of four straight draws in the league before this game.

"I'm delighted," he said.

"Considering people are harping on week-in, week-out that we haven't won away from home and we've never won at Fratton Park, we've put that record straight.

"There has been criticism after so many draws but I thought we did exceptionally well when we went to Chelsea.

"And our last three away have been clean sheets so we've made ourselves hard to beat. "The philosophy remains not to get beat.

"When I took over we were 10 or so points behind the likes of Blackburn and Sunderland but we've gradually got ourselves up and running and now we're points ahead of them.

"We're still in a difficult position but the confidence is growing.

"It's not easy to come here. I don't know many teams who come here and win by three clear goals."